Road Show

2405. ROAD SHOW (1941-USA). With ADOLPHE MENJOU, CAROLE LANDIS, CHARLES BUTTERWORTH, PATSY KELLY, WILLIE BEST, MOE HOWARD. Directed by HAL ROACH, original songs by HOAGY CARMICHAEL. Co-written by HARRY LANGDON. Drogo Gaines is an eligible bachelor whose status as wealthy playboy has resulted in a lifetime of problems with women. Whenever he looks into a girl’s eyes, he finds that she is peering at his checkbook. Drogo has managed to get himself engaged to one such golddigger, but at the last minule feigns insanity to extricate himself from his nuptials. This lands him in a sanitarium where he is befriended by Colonel Carleton Carraway (delightfully played by Adolphe Menjou), as zany and eccentric a character as has ever appeared on screen. Carraway ends up leading our reluctant hero to a broken-down carnival operated by a pretty young woman named Penguin Moore. Finally, Drogo has met a self-sufficient female who would not be obsessed with his bank account if she knew his true identity. The only trouble is, her first impression of him is less than favorable. What will he have to do to win her? The result is a congenial comic-romantic romp directed by one of the movies’ all-time-great laughmakers. Especially amusing are the sequences in which Drogo finds himself thrust into a Hon’s cage and expected to act the part of Fearless Drogo, lion tamer extraordinaire. 87 minutes. Scewball Comedy